Democratise information and India can redesign the world: Sam Pitroda

Emphasising the need for e-governance that will connect billions of Indians, Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations of India, argued at the World Economic Forum India summit today that government information has to be made transparent and be opened to the public. He declared that from March onwards government data would begin to be made open to the public, adding that the Indian government is the only government willing to spend so much money to develop the infrastructure of providing information. He said that he strongly believed that through the process of ‘democratacising information’, India will be able to redesign the world. [caption id=“attachment_129821” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Pitroda at the WEF India summit - photo courtesy of World Economic Forum”] [/caption]Pitroda said that e-governance was the first step to achieve development in terms of innovation in India. He said that although a lot was already happening in India, it needed to happen faster, and one way to make sure that happened was by informing people through an open government platform. “E-governance will be able to connect 250,000 people through optical fibre”, Pitroda said. He said connectivity among the masses was essential if India is to become the next global leader. He also said that the program of Unique Identification Development (UID) that will tag each individual is an essential step to make information available to citizens. Speaking further, Pitroda went on to say that that instead of trying to fix old institutions, it was time for India to create institutions for the 21st century. “Don’t fix the unfixable, let it die,” he said. However he said that in doing so, the key concept to keep in mind while developing Indian models in this regard would be ‘low cost and affordability’.